Leg Room
by MarkusDaBrave
Summary: A young marine on a Behemoth-class Battlecruiser is discovering for himself why the zerg are the only truly feared enemy in the galaxy. Will he escape the endless swarm of ravenous aliens, or will he be overcome by the monsters he thought could only ever exist in his dreams? ((Note: Only a 3 page short story. Should take 5 minutes to read, but I hope it leaves you satisfied.))


**Leg Room**

Concept: Inspired by and "Lead Sails and a Paper Anchor" by Atreyu

and "Starcraft II" by Blizzard Entertainment

 **The** shrieks of Hydralisks and Zerglings echoed down the halls of the Pharaoh II. PFC Sean Trope did his best to ignore them and walk down the corridor with a controlled pace. His feet were getting away from him. He tried to inhale deeply, but all he achieved were sharper, more sporadic breaths with every attempt. He closed his bloodshot eyes and rubbed them, trying to wipe the moisture from his vision. He pressed tears out of his eyes like a geyser and smeared them all over his face.

The scream of a man followed by the horrifying rip of human flesh almost caused a shallow panic-filled yelp to leap out of Sean. He looked backwards to see nothing was chasing him and quickened his pace down the hall. The lights flickered. Or did Sean just blink? He wasn't quite sure.

A hiss from the door sent a chill up the private's spine as he rushed into the EVA room. Extra Vehicular Activity suits were neatly hung on the walls as if they were on display. Sean slammed his C-14 rifle on a shelf and tore a suit off the wall. His ears rang from the loud metal-to-metal clammer his rifle made on the surface. The sweat on his palms made gripping the material difficult, but he managed to slip his legs into the suit and pull it above his waist.

EVA suits were cold like the vacuum of space they protected the wearer from. Sean longed to escape the tin can his fellow marines called the Pharaoh II. Even a behemoth-class battlecruiser can seem small after a few months on board. This was Sean's first tour as a Dominion marine and he had already seen horrific sights and heard terrible sounds. His last mission got his whole unit killed except him and his Sergeant. Most of them were shredded by Hydralisk claws or crushed under the weight of a pouncing Zergling. A few were killed with spines, but the zerg were quick. Most soldiers didn't realize that a Hydralisk didn't need to use its spines to kill you in half a second from ten feet away.

Distant gauss rifles fired sporadically. The sound rattled through Sean's mind and reminded him of just last week, when him and his unit were planetside and fighting these terrible creatures. He heard the same screams then, too. Almost exactly the same screams, as a matter of fact. It was like Sean was hearing his comrades die all over again.

Sean grabbed a helmet off the shelf and screwed it onto his suit after zipping and locking himself in. His heavy breathing had slowed and he was surprised how relaxed he seemed to be. It didn't last, however, when the smell of his own breath made him even more claustrophobic than he was before. The walls of the Pharaoh II were bad enough. Sean even hated his CMC armor. This EVA suit was torturous.

"Months in the tight confinement of a space-faring crate only to escape in a paper bag." Sean thought, checking the door behind him to make sure it was closed and locked. It was. The zerg had followed him home, but not here. Not even zerg can survive in the cold vacuum of space. Of course, Zerg actually can survive in the cold vacuum of space, but Sean wasn't thinking that far ahead.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

A long, high pitched alarm sounded, warning Sean that he had initiated the airlock sequence. "Get me out of here. Get me out!" Sean screamed in his mind. He felt oddly empty handed and looked back at the door to see if anybody, or anything, had followed him into the EVA room. Nobody had. His C-14 Gauss Rifle, however, left him behind and was still sitting right where Sean had left it. He swore and reached for it, but the closing airlock door sent him sprawling backwards onto the icy metal ground. The thud of his body scared him and he scurried backwards onto the bulkhead. More alarms and warnings went off before the room began depressurizing.

Loud bangs and pops disoriented Sean from every angle. He attempted to stammer to his feet and it seemed as if the battlecruiser was tipping. It was only now when Sean thought of the possibility of zerg outside the walls of the ship. Or maybe there would be debris from the Pharaoh II? Sean didn't care anymore. He wanted off the ship, and he wanted off now. The huge vault-like airlock door opened and Sean took a step outside. He didn't get far, of course, because without gravity to hold you in place, you can't exactly step very far. His legs kicked as he tried to remain grounded, but he began helplessly floating. The battlecruiser slowly drifted away from Sean and he found himself in the cold, dark, empty void of space.

Hydralisk screams and zergling shrieks could still be heard. Sean didn't even think about it, he was just happy to be off the ship. An all-new peace had fallen over him. He didn't care if he died out in space, at least he would be away from those monsters straight from his nightmares.

As the Pharaoh II grew more and more distant, Sean realized it was surprisingly intact. As a matter of fact, there were no zerg on the outside at all. The hull was completely scratch-less. He was astonished. How did the zerg get in the ship without getting through the hull? Maybe the damage was just on the other side. Still, as Sean continued to drift, he saw that there were no debris, no fires, no alarms, nothing out of the ordinary at all.

Sean's head perked as the feeling that he had forgotten something important lingered. He couldn't pinpoint what it was, but his sub conscience seemed to remember that he needed a tether while going EVA. In confusion, he looked down and grabbed his belt buckle. There was no tether. No lifeline. Sean was free. And there was nothing able to pull him back to the ship.

Sean began to panic. He began to breathe heavily and kick and squirm against the firm grip of death. The binding fingers of space were pulling Sean further and further from the Pharaoh II and nothing, nobody, could save him. He felt safe from the zerg, at least. The feeling of claustrophobia, however, had intensified, as the sound and smell of his own breathing became louder and more potent.

An alarm sounded in Sean's helmet. It was a broadcast to all emergency personnel, giving them permission to retrieve the floating man. The bulkhead on the airlock door rolled to the side and the airlock opened. Two jumpers with cables leaped out of the airlock and headed straight for Sean. He began flailing even more in fear. He didn't want them to take him back, he thought, but he also didn't want to float into space until he starved to death or plummeted into a planet.

The feelings of confusion attacked Sean's head. He felt both safe and calm while he was also terrified for his life. He felt like these men were pulling him back to face his death at the hand of the zerg. Then again, he also was rational enough to know that he would die a slower death out in space.

The jumpers reached Sean and grabbed his legs. He kicked and squirmed as they brought him in and buckled him to a tether. The tethers then began pulling all three men back to the Pharaoh II's airlock. As the ship grew larger, Sean began to kick again.

"No, no, not this, I can't go back in here, I can't breath. I can't breath!." Sean began pushing and shoving the marines holding him in place. The smell of his own warm breath suffocated him within his helmet.

"I can't do this! Don't- …Stop!" He screamed within himself.

Soon, the bulkhead closed and medical staff were standing at a distance. Sergeant Kyle was standing over PFC Sean Trope and the men who had brought him in were keeping him restrained. Still, he kicked and punched to get out of their grip.

"Sean! Sean, it's okay, now! You're safe!" Sergeant Kyle was assuring, motioning with his hands for Sean to calm down. He took off his helmet after the room depressurized and got on his knees to be eye level with Sean.

"Stop struggling, you're safe. It's okay, Sean." Sean stopped struggling. He sat on the floorboards and breathed heavily as he slowly came back to his senses.

Screams still echoed, though. Sean could still hear the gunfire. He could still hear his brothers-in-arms fighting the savage beasts as they clawed and slashed through metal and bone with ease. Now that Sean had a moment of silence, he realized that those sounds hadn't really stopped the whole time.

"Sean…" Sergeant Kyle removed Sean's helmet and his eyes were completely glazed over. He slowly leaned back and relaxed on the bulkhead. The men restraining him cautiously released their grip. Medical staff came in the airlock with a stretcher. Sergeant Kyle halted them with the wave of his hand.

"Sean… Can you hear me?" The private slowly looked up at Kyle with tear-filled eyes. His face began to wrinkle and he tried to bury his head in his hands.

"Why did you jump, Sean?" Sean didn't respond. He only wept. The zerg were still in the ship, he could feel it, he could hear them. But only now Sean distinguished his mind's ear and his physical ear. There were no zerg. He couldn't remember why he jumped. He couldn't remember anything except the mission he and one-hundred other soldiers embarked on a few days prior.

"Why did you jump, Sean?" Sergeant Kyle repeated when Sean lifted his chin from his chest. He pulled his knees in and hugged them. Medical staff carefully lifted him up and set him on the stretcher. Sean didn't resist. His eyes were tear filled and his face was wrinkled and distorted with emotion.

"Sean… It's okay, now… You're safe." Sean could feel Kyle's sincerity. Sean looked up at him and swallowed hard.

"Why did you jump?" Everything was quiet for awhile. Sean didn't move. His eyes searched for answers in the LED lights which illuminated the airlock. He shook his head, before looking back at his feet in shame.

"I guess I just needed some leg room, sir." Sean said nothing more. There was a long pause of silence before Kyle gave the nod for him to be carried to Medical. He shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair after the private was gone. Lieutenant Trip waited outside the airlock for Kyle to emerge.

"Was the private okay?"

"Yeah, he was unharmed." The lieutenant shook his head.

"Goddamn… That's the third one this month, isn't it?" The Sergeant dipped his head and pushed his fingers into his eyes.

"It's going to be a long war."


End file.
